Teardrop Lane (32 page)

“You needed!” Cicero exploded. He pointed toward the staircase. “What about them? They had just lost their mother. You should have put their needs first.”

Scott took hold of his wife’s hand. “We did—we
are
doing—what we think is best for everyone. Jayne asked that Amy and me be parents to her children, not you. We are prepared to do that.”

“Now, maybe. What about six weeks from now? I won’t allow this.”

Amy sighed.

“Cicero, you can’t stop it. You can only make it more difficult for the children.”

“Me make life difficult for them? Me? Don’t try that B.S. on me. They’re settled here. They’re happy here.”

“They’ve been here six weeks. An extended vacation.”

“What was this weekend? A test run? An audition? Were you trying to see if you really wanted them or not?”

The flash of guilt on Amy’s face made him want to hit something.

Someone. Okay, he wanted to hit Scott
.

“Look, Cicero, we’re not going to argue any more about this. Our original intention was to talk to you tonight about a convenient time to bring the kids to Houston. However, Misty is so excited about her play that we are willing to allow them to stay through July. Our school district begins classes on August tenth, so we’ll come back up to watch her performance and leave here on August first. That’s enough time to get them home and ready and settled before school starts.”

They already are home
.

“Don’t do this.” He balled his fists at his sides. “This is crazy. It’s not right for you or for them. Look, I’m sorry you lost your baby. I can only imagine how difficult that is for you. But you can’t replace one child with another. You can’t—”

“You don’t do this!” Amy snapped back. “Don’t you dare presume. You don’t know anything, Hunt Cicero. I lost my baby and my best friend in a short time span. Before that, I lost my brother! Yes, Scott and I were too quick to ask you for help with the children. But people make mistakes. We recognized ours and we intend to rectify it. We love Misty and Keenan and Galen and Daisy. When we told Jayne we’d take care of them, we meant it.”

He read the sincerity in her words and expression, but he didn’t believe it. How could he? “I know what it’s like to be bounced around from home to home. It’s not good. It’s not healthy. Children need to feel safe and secure. They need to be able to count on you to be there.”

Scott took a step forward. “Cicero, we are here because they can count on us.”

“Have you told them about this?”

“No. We thought it best to leave that up to you. You’ll know when the time is right.”

“The time will never be right. You know what? I don’t care what you want or what guilt you’re trying to assuage. The kids aren’t leaving. Period. I’ll fight you for them.”

“You’ll be wasting your time. Wasting your money. We’ve looked into it. You have no legal right to them, Cicero.” Scott turned toward his wife. “Let’s go, honey. Thank you for dinner. Thank you for taking such good care of the children. Amy, let’s go.”

“I want to say one more good-bye to the children.”

She disappeared inside leaving Cicero and Scott standing alone.

“You don’t want these kids,” Cicero accused, his tone soft.

“I’ll do anything for Amy.”

Three interminable minutes ticked by in silence before she returned. With a subdued “Good night, Cicero,” the Parnells took their leave.

He stood alone on his porch, anger and frustration and fear churning inside him. The screen door creaked. He looked around to see Rose—his lovely, beloved Rose—watching him with tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes stricken with grief.

“Doctor Mom,” he murmured, and opened his arms.

She fled into them and he held her tight, shut his eyes, and fought back despair. “We will fight this,
Bellissima
. I won’t let them take our family away.”

She nodded. “I’m going to call Mac Timberlake.” Knuckling away her tears, she leaned up and kissed his cheek before heading back into the house.

Cicero shoved his fingers through his hair and attempted to control his thoughts. His gaze fell on the porch swing. Just a couple of days had passed since he and Rose sat there talking about their wedding. She wanted this family.
She wanted this chaos. It was her version of perfect, everything she’d ever wanted.

Anger ripped through him. How dare those people come back and turn the children’s world on its axis? Rose’s world. His world.

Damned if that was going to happen. He’d fight until his last breath.

You have no legal right—

Just like the Brothertons.

Anguish, fear, and fury swept through him. He knew better than anyone the cost of legal rights.

Dammit, history wasn’t going to repeat itself
.

“I won’t let them take it away from her. From us.”

The screen door creaked a second time, and Misty rushed onto the porch. She held a smartphone in her hand, one he didn’t recognize. “Look, Uncle Hunk. Look what Aunt Amy gave me. It’s so we can call her and talk to her any time we want. And look, she’s loaded it with pictures of the puppy! Isn’t he the cutest thing ever? Uncle Hunk, won’t you please let me—”

“Dammit, Misty,” he snapped, not looking at the phone. “You are not getting a dog. Shut up about a damned dog!”

She pulled back as though he had slapped her. Cicero turned and walked off the porch into the dark, lonely night.

When Rose arrived at Mac Timberlake’s law office at ten the following morning for the meeting they’d scheduled last night, Cicero sat on the front stoop, waiting. Rose took one look at her fiancé’s tired eyes and wondered if he’d managed more than two hours sleep.

“Hey,” he said as she walked up.

“Hey, yourself.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “How are you doing?”

“Just peachy. You?”

“About the same. You have the kids all settled?”

“Yes. It’s a stroke of good luck that Lori Murphy wanted to earn some money while on her school break. Having a full-time babysitter is a godsend.” His mouth twisted in a crooked smile as he added, “I okayed a field trip to Nic Callahan’s clinic to see the kittens that were born earlier this week.”

“Isn’t one of them allergic to cats?”

“Galen and Misty, both. I’ve been assured that they’ll be okay as long as they don’t try to hold one.”

“Trying to make up for biting Misty’s head off last night?”

“Am I that transparent?” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have yelled at her, but her dog obsession was just about the last thing I needed at the moment.”

“She’ll get over it,” Rose predicted. “Kids are resilient. She’ll forgive you.”

“Resilient.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how resilient they’ll be when this all breaks loose.”

“Each day as it comes, right?”

“Right.”

Rose gave his hand a squeeze of support as Mac Timberlake strode up the steps. “Good morning, you two. Sorry I’m running late. I made a couple of calls to Texas researching this situation, and it took longer than I anticipated.”

He unlocked the door and ushered them inside and up a flight of stairs to his second floor office. Once inside, he asked them both to sit. “Cicero, I need you to repeat the story from the beginning. Go all the way back to when you first met your sister. Be as detailed as possible.”

With interruptions for Mac’s questions, the telling took almost forty-five minutes. Mac filled up a yellow legal pad with notes. When he finally set down his pen
and leaned back in his chair, Rose saw little encouragement in his expression. She wasn’t surprised.

“Articulate what you want,” the former federal judge said. “Give me the bottom line.”

“I want the kids,” Cicero declared. His jaw was hard, and his eyes fierce.

“Why?” Mac pressed. “You are going to have to be specific and direct.”

“Well, lots of reasons. I think—”

“Bottom line it,” Mac repeated.

“I want—them to be happy.”

“Excellent goal. Now, every decision we make needs to have that purpose at its root. Don’t forget it. Tattoo it on your forehead if you must.”

“Okay.”

“So in order for those kids to be happy, what needs to happen?”

“They need to be loved and live in a stable home.”

“You don’t trust Amy and Scott Parnell to provide that.”

“No!” Cicero shot to his feet and began to pace Mac’s office. “They don’t really want Jayne’s children. They want their own. Grief is running this bus. I know what it’s like to be bounced around from home to home, from a relative to a foster situation. It destroys all sense of a child’s security. You can’t count on anything, plan on anything. You can’t let down your guard because you know that as soon as you do, as soon as you start feeling safe, you’ll get that phone call, have that talk, be on the road again. The Parnells have broken trust once. They’ll do it again.”

Mac turned to Rose. “What is your bottom line, Rose?”

“Hunt makes a compelling argument. My bottom line is that I’ll support him one hundred percent in whatever decision he makes.”

“You’re engaged to him. Are you ready and willing to take on four children who aren’t related to you? To be a mother to them?”

“I am. I want that more than anything.”

“Okay, then. Here’s the reality.” Mac tapped his pen against the yellow legal pad filled with his notes. “This is going to be tough. Really tough. If you sue for custody, I will fight for you, but you need to know going in that the odds are stacked against you. It will take more time than you think and a lot more money than you guess.”

“More time?” Cicero returned to his seat. “We can’t do it before August first? That’s when they want to take them back to Texas.”

Mac shook his head. “I’m sorry, no.”

Rose asked, “Can we get a temporary order of some sort to keep them here until the bigger question is settled?”

“I will try, but again, your chances are slim.”

“So you’re telling me we are going to need a miracle.” Mac nodded, and Cicero spared Rose a grim look.

“At least we are in the right place,” she said. “Eternity Springs does miracles.”

“What can we do to improve our chances?” Cicero asked. “Is there anything we can do? What’s our best course of action going forward?”

Rose added, “Do we tell the kids what’s going on?”

Mac’s brow furrowed in thought. “That’s your call,” he said. “But if you don’t tell them, the Parnells might. How would that affect them? The court will want to interview them, too. Their wishes will be considered.”

“I think we’d better give that some thought.”

Cicero dragged his hand down his face, and his weariness grew even more pronounced. “I don’t want to upset them, but I don’t want them to hear it from someone else, either. Maybe don’t say anything until we see if
we’re going to be able to stop the August first move.” He looked at Rose. “What do you think?”

“When will we know about that?” she asked Mac.

“I’ll make some more calls. It should be fairly soon, I’d think. Let me reiterate that it’s a slim possibility. You need to be prepared for the alternative. One thing I would suggest is that you consider moving your wedding date forward.”

“I agree,” Rose said.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Cicero asked.

“I told you before that the bells and whistles don’t matter as long as I have you.”

“And the kids. You said me
and
the kids. I want to give you a family, Rose.”

“You are.” She rested her hand atop his and squeezed it. “Those four children will always be part of our family. No matter what, they will be part of our lives. Amy said she wouldn’t keep them from us.”

“That’s before we sue. Oh, hell.” He rubbed his weary eyes. “It could get ugly, right, Mac?”

“Custody suits often do.”

“If we lose, we could lose everything.” His expression turned bleak. “We might never see them again.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Rose said, meeting his gaze and holding it. “Remember Mac’s admonition about the bottom line. The kids’ happiness and security is our bottom line. That means you need to be in their lives. We can’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

“What are you saying, Rose? Give up?”

“No. I think filing a lawsuit is the right thing to do. It will be a fair test of the Parnells’ seriousness where the children are concerned. But Hunt, if they fight back—if they prove this is what they want and not a just response to grief—then we need to be ready to let it go. The kids don’t need to be in the middle of a nasty custody fight.”

He dragged his hand down his face again. “This time,
I’m Jason Brotherton. It’s the same damned nightmare all over again.”

Rose took hold of his hand and squeezed it supportively.

“She makes a good point,” Mac agreed. “We could concede on a custody fight and gain a visitation agreement you could live with.”

Cicero thought it through, then shook his head. “We don’t know their motives. I don’t trust them. You don’t just throw away kids, and then want them back when it’s convenient. You don’t rip apart their lives on a whim. What they did was unforgivable. The kids deserve better.”

He looked at Rose. “You and I are better.”

“But we can’t ignore the reality,” she said. “If it’s going to put the kids in the middle of a huge custody battle that we can’t win, then nobody wins. The kids suffer. I don’t think you want that. We have to put them first in this, and hope for that miracle.”

His struggle was obvious. He recognized the reality of the situation. He just didn’t want to have to accept it. Eventually, however, he acceded that he must.

“Okay. That makes sense. So, we have a plan. We file for custody, but hold a fallback position of a liberal visitation agreement. Where do we start, Mac?”

“I’ll draw up papers this morning and get them over to you to sign. Will you be at your studio?”

“No,” Rose said. “We’re going into Gunnison.” Cicero frowned in confusion.

“Do you have a doctor’s appointment?”

“No.” She wiggled the fingers of her left hand. Her engagement ring sparkled. “It’s the closest marriage license office.”

“We are not going to get married at the courthouse,” Cicero said. “Sage would chew my left butt cheek completely off.”